Do You Need to Save Your Client Snapchats?

Do You Need to Save Your Client Snapchats?

Daily Real Estate News |
Wednesday, January 27, 2016

The growing popularity of so-called ephemeral messaging apps like Snapchat and Wickr offer a new way to communicate with clients. What distinguishes this type of communication from others is the transient quality of the texts; they disappear after a few seconds, although recipients can copy them if they’re quick about it.

Courts in California and Missouri have recently ruled that these communications, if they’re used in a business context like real estate, don’t have to be kept as part of one’s record keeping. As NAR Senior Counsel Finley Maxson says, “Both states have made it clear that these are not the type of correspondence licensees are required to retain in their client files.”

The rulings are a top story in The Voice for Real Estate video for the week of January 25, embedded here. Another top story looks at the surge in home sales, which increased a whopping 14.7 percent in December. NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun says the one-month jump confirms the slowdown in sales the previous month was caused by the closing rules that took effect in October.

“The decline back in November we attributed largely to the rule on mortgage closings, the Know Before You Owe rule,” Yun said when he released the December sales figures last week. This latest data “is confirming that it was mostly delays and not cancellations.”

The video also looks at two other important developments in the industry: the life sentence handed down to the man who took the life of an Arkansas real estate professional, Beverly Carter, and the role a new NAR tech lab is playing in the design of smart home devices.